CEO, Empowerment Institute

Josie Maran Cosmetics, Strategic Partner

Manager of Community Learning

Administrator, Empowerment Institute

IMAGINE Consultant for MENA Region

Webmaster

We offer our deep appreciation for the generous financial, communication and strategic support of our partner, Josie Maran Cosmetics.

Gail Straub, co-founder and Executive Director of Empowerment Institute, is one of the world’s leading authorities on women’s empowerment. As part of this focus, she co-founded IMAGINE: A Global Initiative for the Empowerment of Women to help women heal from violence, build strong lives, and contribute to their community. This initiative applies the Institute’s empowerment methodology to the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal “to promote gender equality and empower women.” IMAGINE initiatives are under way in Afghanistan, India, Jordan Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

Gail has also consulted to many organizations furthering women’s empowerment including the Chinese Women’s Federation, Women for Women International, the Women’s Leadership Center at Omega, and World Pulse. Additionally Gail is a contributor to the Huffington Post and other publications on women’s empowerment issues.

Gail is the author of four books including, with her husband David Gershon, the best selling Empowerment: The Art of Creating Your Life As You Want It, the critically acclaimed, The Rhythm of Compassion: Caring for Self, Connecting with Society, and the award-winning feminist memoir Returning to My Mother’s House: Taking Back the Wisdom of the Feminine. She is also a contributor to the anthology Enlightened Power: How Women Are Transforming the Practice of Leadership. Gail co-directs Empowerment Institute’s School for Transformative Social Change which empowers change agents from around the world to design and implement cutting edge social innovations.

Taking her empowerment work global early in her career, Gail served as the International Director for the historic First Earth Run, a planet-wide initiative co-sponsored by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and ABC Television. During the height of the Cold War, a torch of peace was passed around the world, mobilizing the participation of 25 million people in 62 countries and 45 heads of state. The event raised millions of dollars for UNICEF that was distributed to the neediest children in the world.

Gail has also served in the Peace Corps in West Africa and on many Boards including Omega Institute and the Russian American Humanitarian Initiative.

David Gershon, co-founder and CEO of Empowerment Institute, is one of the world’s foremost authorities on behavior-change, community empowerment and large-system transformation, and applies this expertise to issues requiring community, organizational, and societal change. His clients include cities, large organizations, government agencies, and social entrepreneurs. He has addressed a wide diversity of issues ranging from low carbon lifestyles, livable neighborhoods, and sustainable communities to organizational talent development, corporate social engagement, and cultural transformation. Over the past thirty years the empowerment programs he has designed have won many awards, and a major academic research study described them as “unsurpassed in changing behavior.”

David used this empowerment proficiency to conceive and organize at the height of the cold war, in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund and ABC Television, one of the planet’s first major global consciousness-raising initiatives—the First Earth Run. Building on his background as the Director of the Lake Placid Olympic Torch Relay, he used the mythic power of relaying a torch of peace around the world to engage the participation of twenty-five million people in sixty-two countries, the world’s political leadership and, through the media, an estimated 20 percent of the planet’s population in an act of global unity. Millions of dollars were also raised as part of this event to help UNICEF provide care for the neediest children of the world.

David is the author of eleven books, including the award-winning Social Change 2.0: A Blueprint for Reinventing Our World, and best-sellers Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program to Lose 5,000 Pounds and, with his wife Gail Straub, Empowerment: The Art of Creating Your Life As You Want It. He co-directs Empowerment Institute’s School for Transformative Social Change which empowers change agents from around the world to design and implement cutting edge social innovations. He has lectured at Harvard, MIT, and Johns Hopkins and served as an advisor to the Clinton White House and the United Nations on behavior change and community empowerment issues.

Dr. Anita Shankar, Behavioral Scientist, Johns Hopkins University

Anita Shankar, PhD, is a medical anthropologist and international public health specialist with nearly twenty years of research and field experience targeted at improving maternal and child health and nutrition and fostering women’s empowerment. She is a research scientist with Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, in the Department of International Health and Environmental Health Sciences. Her areas of expertise include improved cook-stove adoption, child health and nutrition, qualitative research methods, infant feeding, stigma and discrimination, women’s empowerment, community mobilization, and program design and implementation. She has published widely in peer-reviewed journals across a range of disciplines. She has lived and worked abroad for most of her career, in Nepal, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia, among other places, and has extensive field experience in India and Kenya.

Manizha Naderi, Women for Afghan Women, AfghanistanManizha Naderi, Executive Director of Women for Afghan Women (WAW), was born in Kabul and raised in New York. She holds a BA in English language arts from Hunter College. Manizha joined WAW in 2002 as the director of the Community Outreach Program in Queens, which she founded. In 2006, she moved permanently to Kabul to direct WAW’s work in Afghanistan. There she created various groundbreaking projects including the Family Guidance Center, which offers counseling and mediation to families in crisis and to women and girls who are experiencing domestic violence, forced and underage marriages, rape, sex trafficking, and other gross violations of their human rights. WAW now operates nine Family Guidance Centers in eight provinces and has helped thousands of women since 2007. Manizha then went on to open an additional eight shelters for women and girls. In these shelters literacy and vocational training classes help women earn a living and achieve financial independence. Manizha then turned her focus to three children support centers for children who were residing with their mothers in prison. Manizha Naderi has overcome daunting barriers to self-empowerment in her own life. She is intimately familiar with the hardships Afghan women face and is committed to advancing the cause of women's rights in Afghanistan and the world.

Women For Afghan WomenWomen for Afghan Women (WAW) is a grassroots, civil society organization. WAW’s mission is dedicated to securing and protecting the rights of disenfranchised Afghan women and girls in Afghanistan and New York, particularly their rights to develop their individual potential, to self-determination, and to be represented in all areas of life: political, social, cultural, and economic. WAW advocates for women’s rights and challenge the norms that underpin gender-based violence wherever opportunities arise to influence attitudes and bring about change.

WAW is committed to the leadership and agency of Afghan women in the struggle for their human rights. WAW's work takes place within the religious and cultural context of the women of Afghanistan. Their work is strengthened by their commitment to diversity. Their board and staff include men and women as well as a diverse representation of age, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. WAW is a resolute advocate for Afghan women’s human rights. WAW is the leading organization in Afghanistan and the only organization in New York dedicated to accessing justice for, and upholding the rights of, Afghan women and girls. www.womenforafghanwomen.org

Naheed Bahram was born to a working-class, conservative family in Kabul, Afghanistan. Her family migrated to Peshawar, Pakistan, after the loss of her mother in a bomb explosion in Kabul. Ms. Bahram graduated from high school in Pakistan and taught ESL to Afghan women in the Afghan refugee camps in Peshawar. She moved to the United States in 2004 as an international student. She graduated from Queens College in June 2011 with a BA in finance and economics. Ms. Bahram has been working with WAW since 2007, first as a volunteer, then as an intern and a caseworker, and now as the program director of WAW New York. Naheed is a member of the Immigration Task Force to Queens Borough President Marshall, and she serves on the board of Flushing Interfaith Council.

Women For Afghan WomenWomen for Afghan Women (WAW) is a grassroots, civil society organization. WAW’s mission is dedicated to securing and protecting the rights of disenfranchised Afghan women and girls in Afghanistan and New York, particularly their rights to develop their individual potential, to self-determination, and to be represented in all areas of life: political, social, cultural, and economic. WAW advocates for women’s rights and challenge the norms that underpin gender-based violence wherever opportunities arise to influence attitudes and bring about change.

WAW is committed to the leadership and agency of Afghan women in the struggle for their human rights. WAW's work takes place within the religious and cultural context of the women of Afghanistan. Their work is strengthened by their commitment to diversity. Their board and staff include men and women as well as a diverse representation of age, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. WAW is a resolute advocate for Afghan women’s human rights. WAW is the leading organization in Afghanistan and the only organization in New York dedicated to accessing justice for, and upholding the rights of, Afghan women and girls. www.womenforafghanwomen.org

Dina Shafaqouj, Jordan River Foundation, JordanAs a Director of the Jordan River Foundation’s Training and Consultancy Services, Mrs. Shafaqouj is responsible for managing as well as delivering specialized field training and consultancy tasks on institutional development, community mobilization, business management, entrepreneurship, women empowerment, and community organizations capacity. Additional experience includes grant management, strategic planning, quality assurance, fund leveraging, supervising, and developing and adapting training tools and modules for community-based productivity projects addressing social and economic needs. She has proven skills in team building, communication, group mobilization, leadership, and mentoring. Mrs. Shafaqouj is a certified dialogue education practitioner and an accredited trainer of trainers and entrepreneurs, possessing certificates from organizations such as International Labor Organization-ILO SIYB and GET Ahead, Open for Business, Empretec -UNCTAD, Active Participation methods, and PACE-CHF.

Jordan River FoundationThe Jordan River Foundation (JRF) is a Jordanian nonprofit, nongovernmental organization (NGO) established in 1995 and chaired by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah. Their vision is a Jordan where solutions are homegrown, where the opportunity to prosper is for all, and where the well-being of our children shapes our future. The foundation’s mission is to engage Jordanians to realize their full economic potential and overcome social challenges, especially child abuse. JRF has three main programs: the Jordan River Child Safety Program, the Jordan River Community Empowerment Program, and the Training and Consultancy Services. Since inception, the foundation has initiated numerous socioeconomic projects for women, which aim to provide employment opportunities that in turn enhance their livelihoods. In tandem, these projects also work toward enhancing women’s knowledge and skills in the production of traditional handicrafts and in entrepreneurial skills. Such initiatives have succeeded in benefiting thousands of individuals—directly and indirectly—and today they continue to generate income for vulnerable communities and families across the kingdom.

With the growth of the foundation, and the evolvement of development in the Country, JRF has widened its approach to include sustainable community investments. By integrating and serving community development needs, the foundation is now recognized nationally, regionally, and internationally as an agent for positive change. Locally, the foundation has achieved acclaim and standing as a leading Jordanian institution that contributes to the social and economic well-being of citizens, and its activities have become models for emulation. www.jordanriver.jo

Manisha Gupte/MASUMManisha Gupte has been part of the women's and health rights movements in India since the mid-1970s. She has studied microbiology (MSc) and sociology. Her PhD thesis was on the concept and practices of patriarchal honor, and how it intersects with caste, sexuality, violence, and the agency of subordinated women. She co-founded MASUM, a rural women's organization in 1987, after living in a drought prone rural area for five years, and has been its co-convener since then. She spent one year as a visiting fellow (1997–1998) in the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. She is associated with progressive organizations nationally, regionally, and internationally as an advisor, board member, or trainer. She has participated in and has promoted campaigns related to reproductive, sexual, and minority rights, and violence against women. She has worked on policy issues with the state and central governments in India over the past three decades. She was the coordinator of the “10th International Women and Health Meeting (IWHM),” held in New Delhi in September 2005. Her co-edited book (2012), “Honour” and Women’s Rights: South Asian Perspectives, includes fifteen papers, highlighting complementary feminist positions from seven countries.

MASUM, Pune, IndiaMahila Sarvangeen Utkarsh Mandal (MASUM) was established in 1987 in rural, drought-prone blocks of Maharashtra state in western India. Since then, it has strived to create a progressive space in society for all discriminated groups by addressing patriarchy and its intersectionality with other systems of subordination. MASUM stresses empowerment of women, as individuals and as collectives, toward individual and social justice, and for enjoyment of human rights by everyone. It encourages democratic and collective decision-making at the grassroots level; thus, most of MASUM’s rural work has now been handed over to local, young women leaders. MASUM is part of progressive rights-based networks from the local to the international levels. It has developed as a credible training institute in issues related to gender equality, gender-based violence, human rights, reproductive and sexual rights, right to health, and international human rights treaties related to women and children. MASUM has published extensively over the past three decades, from user-friendly communication material to training manuals and books. MASUM is also the recipient of numerous awards that honor its engagement with gender equality, secularism, and democratic rights. www.masum-india.org.in

Tejaswi Sevakari/SaheliTejaswi Sevakari has done her masters in social work, with medical and psychiatric social work as her specialization. Since 1995 she has worked with women sex workers and has helped to establish a community-based organization, Saheli HIV/AIDS Karyakarta Sangh, which is a sex workers’ collective in Pune, India. As the director of Saheli, Tejaswi has presented papers at national as well as international conferences. She has also conducted research regarding sex workers as well as studying the law regarding this population. Training is her passion and Tejaswi has conducted many programs on issues regarding HIV/AIDS, sex work, and community mobilization. She is a certified trainer of the Empowerment Institute USA, and started Empowerment Workshops for women in sex work for the first time in India. She is associated as a community advisory board member for National AIDS Research Institute, and B. J. Medical Collage/John Hopkins- HIV/AIDS clinical trial unit. Tejaswi works as an expert panelist for anti-sexual-harassment committees for several educational institutes and industries.

Saheli HIV/AIDS Karyakarta SanghSince its foundation in 1998, Saheli’s vision has been to empower female sex workers in Pune’s red light district through a collectivization effort. Saheli’s main aim is to enable greater levels of self-protection among sex workers through a sense of togetherness, collective action, and, most important, creating an identity. At present Saheli encompasses 100 non-brothel-based sex workers, approximately 3,000 women working in the brothels, and the collective’s general membership consists of more than 1,000 members. Saheli is the only sex worker’s collective in Pune and its activities include STI/HIV/AIDS prevention and education; self-help groups for women living with HIV/AIDS; networking with government hospitals, clinics, and other NGOs; a community kitchen project; and a drop-in center for sex workers as well as a day and night crèche for children of sex workers.

Anu Kapoor, Swayam: Kolkata, IndiaAnuradha Kapoor is the founder and director of Swayam, a Kolkata-based women’s rights organization dedicated to addressing gender inequality and ending violence against women. She is both an Ashoka fellow and an Eisenhower fellow and has been nominated as a member of the Civil Society Advisory Group for India, set up by UN Women. She is actively involved in policy and legal advocacy on women’s rights and was keenly engaged in advocating for the introduction and effective implementation of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (2005). Anu is a speaker and a trainer on gender, violence against women, and women’s human rights. She conducts trainings for judges, lawyers, the police, government officials, business people, educational institutions, and social organizations in India and abroad. She has been involved in judicial training in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh as part of the Asia Pacific Forum on Judicial Education on Equality Issues. Anu initiated the founding of AMAN, Global Voices for Peace in the Home, an international network of organizations working on domestic violence and she has been involved in executing numerous campaigns on violence against women at the state and national levels.

SWAYAMSwayam is a women’s rights organization committed to ending inequality and violence against women, based in Kolkata, India. Swayam facilitates the empowerment of women survivors of violence and provides them with holistic support services including counseling, police follow-up, legal and health care support, referrals for shelter, vocational training, and employment, a drop in center, child support, and numerous group activities—with the ultimate objective of enabling them to access their rights, become self-sufficient, and move ahead with confidence and dignity. Swayam also works to create a social environment where violence against women is unacceptable by focusing on broad campaigns to raise public consciousness and shift social and cultural norms that perpetuate gender-based violence. Through community intervention programs, the organization provides women, men, and youth the tools to address violence in their communities. Swayam builds capacities of the community women, Swayam members, workers of nongovernmental and community-based organizations, and social activists through tailor-made trainings. They conduct research and use the findings to advocate with government and judicial bodies at the state and national level to influence policy and practices. They also produce campaign and resource materials and network with like-minded organizations to create broad social change. www.swayam.info

Mary Alice Onyura: ESVAK Community Development, KenyaMary Alice was born on the 26th of December 1957, and raised in a small rural Village of Homabay County in Kenya. Before joining boarding school at the age of ten, she had to walk the twelve kilometers to and from school. Such early challenges prepared her to understand the hardships of the disenfranchised women both in the rural and urban locations. She joined high school at the age of twelve having skipped the sixth class of primary school. Her professional background is in education, psychology, rural sociology, and community development. She was part of the pioneering group of women psychologists at the University of Nairobi. Mary Alice is a lively teacher, deeply empathetic. She believes in the correlation between women’s interior empowerment and economic development. In the course of her career she has worked with extremely disenfranchised target groups such as street children and homeless women. She is a founding director of ESVAK Community Development Initiatives, a national NGO that currently works with the poorest of the poor rural and urban women in small communities through 260 self-help groups in fifteen of the forty-seven counties in Kenya. She is passionate about IMAGINE Kenya and see its potential in transforming women’s lives.

ESVAK Community Development, KenyaESVAK Community Development Initiatives was founded in August 2001 and is registered as a national NGO. For the past twelve years ESVAK has worked with poor communities in twenty-three constituencies in fifteen counties. Currently ESVAK partners with 260 self-help groups and ten community-based organizations while accessing a direct target population of over 10,000 through more than fifty community projects in the relevant counties. ESVAK’s current programs include Urban Slum Development; Entrepreneurship and Women & Youth Empowerment; Education for Rural and Marginalized Communities; Civic Education; Research on Clean Cook-Stoves with Johns Hopkins University; and IMAGINE Empowerment Training launched in February 2012. ESVAK has a long track record for working with communities at the grassroots level and as a result has a wealth of community capital. ESVAK has successfully managed resources for thirteen international partners and it has infrastructure in target areas. NGOs from ten European countries and the United States have partnered with ESVAK (among other projects) to build schools, children’s homes, ablution blocks, shelters for the homeless, early childhood development centers, and youth vocational training centers; offer microcredit revolving fund scheme; and carry out research. http://esvakcdi.org

Marren Ojode: SANJA WOMEN GROUP, KenyaDuring her teaching career as the head of guidance and counseling, Marren Ojode interacted with many types of parents. This involvement led to a passion for working with women whom she saw as the pillars of families. In 1988 Marren founded the Sanja Women Group whose main objective is to uplift the socioeconomic conditions of disadvantaged rural women. Because waterborne diseases posed a great threat to this population, the focus of their work has been on clean water projects in Sanja Spring, Kiringi, Nyamnethe, and Gode-Barore. These projects helped the Sanja women to realize their self-reliance and economic empowerment. But it wasn’t until the IMAGINE Kenya Initiative when Marren was certified to facilitate the Empowerment Workshop that these women realized their agency and inner power. The partnership of economic empowerment along with this agency has made these rural women unstoppable. They are now engaged in a variety of family businesses including selling grains as well as making and selling liquid soap. For the first time they are able to feed and educate their children. Inspired by the results of the Empowerment Workshop, Marren has trained more than three hundred women.

SANJA WOMEN GROUPIn 1988 Mrs. Marren Ojode founded Sanja Women Group with her vision to uplift the socioeconomic and spiritual welfare of rural populations. The Sanja Women’s Group is a branch of the Nyisango Women, serving communities in the Nyanza Province. Key services provided include launching women’s groups that take responsibility to support themselves via small businesses created through microlending funds; creating HIV/AIDS awareness through positive campaigns as well as caring for people living with HIV/AIDS; caring and supporting orphans and vulnerable children; and providing access to clean water. The Sanja Women Group works in collaboration with the government of Kenya, social service groups, other NGOs, and local hospitals, schools, and development services. In 2011 Marren Ojode attended the Empowerment Institute in New York where she was certified as an Empowerment Workshop facilitator. Since then, through Sanja Women Group she has trained more than three hundred women in rural Kenya with the Empowerment methodology. Not only have these women been transformed socially, economically, and spiritually; they in turn have transformed entire communities. soulsourcefoundation.org/partners/sanjo-women/

Leah Auma Okeyo realized her calling as a leader during dark days struggling to attain education with children in her rural community in Kenya and her activism around HIV/AIDS. After turning to the internet to connect to a global community of women, she now uses her voice to inspire others on the worldwide stage. She has traveled to Mexico, Canada, South Africa, Austria, UK, Mozambique, and Turkey to spread her message of empowerment and teach other women and girls how to find their voice. As a certified IMAGINE practitioner and a graduate of the Empowerment Institute in New York, Leah empowers her local community to have the courage to dream, to grow, and to realize their fullest potential. A tech-savvy woman, and a firm believer in connection, she trains other women and girls to express themselves and build their capacity through digital media wherever she goes. Leah is a commanding, six-foot-tall mother of six who radiates integrity and kindness—everyone looks up to Leah! Make yourself at home! Get acquainted with Leah's gifts and partner with her to change the world for women and children here: www.leahokeyo.weebly.com.

PACHO (Positive and Active towards Change Organization)Founded by Leah Okeyo and other women who are passionate about creating change in their rural community, PACHO works with women, girls, and communities in rural Kenya to empower them with resources that educate them on HIV and related rights issues, raise their voices through digital media, use their crafts skills for community service and generating income, and support women, girls, and orphans to continue with their education and lead fulfilling lives through trainings and support networks. PACHO’s programs are run at both the local and national levels. PACHO’s vision is to build an Empowerment Center that will help empower women with skills and income. The skills and entrepreneurship training center will include a bakery, an IT center where women will learn to use the Web 2.0, a tailoring and jewelry-making section, and a safe house for abused and battered women and children. For more info and to support PACHO please visit http://leahokeyo.weebly.com/pacho.html.

Pam RyanPam Ryan is the founder of her company Virtual Ringmaster, LLC. Through her more than twenty-five years of administrative experience, she has mastered the art and science of calmly juggling multiple priorities to get the job done. Customer-focused administrative support is Pam’s specialty in her role as a virtual assistant. She spent ten years in Washington, DC, working for two nonprofit trade associations as an executive assistant, office manager, and meeting planner. After relocating to northeast Ohio, she worked for seven years as an executive assistant and customer service representative for a Fortune 100 company. Currently as the administrative manager for the Empowerment Institute, Pam handles a myriad of details including registration, visa requirements, and travel arrangements, and is an executive assistant to Gail Straub. She loves working with the IMAGINE participants from all over the world. Pam holds a BS degree and she has successfully completed AssistU’s comprehensive, industry-specific Virtual Training Program. She has been an active member of the International Association of Administrative Professionals since 1992. When not in her office, Pam’s favorite activity is tending her flower garden. She also likes to spend time admiring the view near a river, pond, or lake any time of year.

Busayo Obisakin: Women Inspiration Development CenterBusayo Obisakin was born into an illiterate family in Nigeria. When she lost her father twenty-two years ago, as the first born in her family Busayo cared for her six siblings. A passionate and highly regarded advocate of gender equality in Nigeria, Busayo has dedicated much of her life work to women’s empowerment. She is founder and CEO of the Women Inspiration Development Center (WIDC). WIDC is designed to help Nigerian girls and women in challenging life circumstances to envision and create new possibilities for their lives, families, and communities. She holds a BS degree in guidance counseling and an MS in administration. For eighteen years she worked as a guidance counselor at the secondary school level and is currently a guidance counselor in the division of students’ affairs, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. Busayo has completed World Pulse’s Voices of the Future program where she was an award-winning citizen journalist. She completed the Empowerment Institute Certification program in New York in June of 2010.

Women Inspiration Development CenterBusayo Obisakin founded the Women Inspiration Development Center (WIDC) in 2008. Along with a group of women colleagues called Vigilantes Against Violence, Busayo set out to curb the violence against women and girls. The mission of the Women Inspiration Development Center is to improve the physical, economic, and social status of Nigerian women and girls, empowering them to lead fulfilling lives free of violence. WIDC provides a safe haven along with an ongoing network that empowers women and girls to discover the real purpose of their lives and to create new possibilities without fear or intimidation. The Empowerment Workshop is a central part of WIDC’S curriculum. When the mission of WIDC is fulfilled, Nigeria will be a safe place for women and girls. https://www.betterplace.org/en/organisations/womeninspirationnigeria

Josie Maran, Josie Maran CosmeticsJosie Maran, founder and chief empowerment officer of Josie Maran Cosmetics (JMC), is a wife, mother, and supermodel-turned-model citizen. In 2007 she created a wildly successful line of “chicological” cosmetics and skin care products under the banner “Luxury with a Conscience,” forging a balance between luxury (high-end ingredients and formulations) and conscience (healthy for people, healthy for the planet.) A fiercely passionate ecopreneur, Josie aspires to make lasting, positive change in the world by building a business that manifests excellence in all its products and practices. Toward that end Josie works with the Imagine Initiative, a program of the internationally acclaimed Empowerment Institute, which provides women the empowerment tools to improve their lives, lift themselves and their families out of poverty, and sustain these changes over time. Josie lives in Los Angeles and Pennsylvania with her husband, Ali Alboorzi, who is also president of JMC, and their daughters, Rumi Joon, 7, and Indi Joon, 1.

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Ali Alborzi, Josie Maran CosmeticsAli Alborzi, president of Josie Maran Cosmetics, has been working hard and playing hard for most of his four decades on the planet. He spent several formative years as executive assistant to world-renowned photo-collagist Peter Beard, learning the secrets of photography, diary-making, and international living from a master. Later, Ali engaged in an artistic collaboration with actor Val Kilmer, who dreamed of creating an eco-resort in New Mexico. In 2008, making use of the skills and sensibilities he'd acquired, Ali founded the high-end, eco clothing company Evidence of Evolution. While running E of E, Ali was also supporting his wife, Josie Maran, as she was conceiving the company that became JMC. Today Ali lives in Los Angeles and Pennsylvania with Josie and their two daughters, Rumi Joon, 7, and Indi Joon, 1.

Laetitia Permall, Cabanga, South Africa

Laetitia Permall is a registered educational psychologist and manages the Office for Academic Support at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in Bellville, South Africa. She received certification as an Empowerment Workshop facilitator in Rhinebeck, New York, in 2013 and is now completing training in the IMAGINE masters certification program. She feels proud to be part of a dynamic IMAGINE South Africa and Africa team. Laetitia’s empowerment work has predominantly been focused on students at UWC but she has also worked with diverse groups of men and women ranging from 19 to 65 years old. Her empowerment work has been integrated into the UWC curriculum as part of a first-year university course to enhance the development of graduate attributes.

Laetitia served as president of the Southern African Association for Counselling and Development in Higher Education in 2012–2013 and as secretary of the Southern African Federation of Student Affairs and Services for 2013–2014. She has presented at national and international conferences and continues to develop strategic interventions to support the personal, academic, and social development of students within the higher-education sector. She is currently pursuing a PhD in child and family studies; her research is a comparative study that explores the impact of the Empowerment Workshop on the core beliefs, self-efficacy, psychological well-being, and academic achievement of university students.

Laetitia is codirector of Cabanga, a nonprofit organization based in the Western Cape that focuses on enhancing youth potential through learning and growth initiatives (including the Empowerment Workshop). She is married to Leon and is the proud mother of two daughters—Charne, age 29, and Roche, age 24. She is blessed to still have her 80-year-old mother, Esther, in her life. She believes that it is imperative to always strive to live the work she shares with others. To this end, her life’s philosophy is “to thine own self be true.”

CabangaThe nonprofit Cabanga organization, based in South Africa’s Western Cape, is codirected by Laetitia Permall and her daughter Charne Permall. The word cabanga means to “conceive” or “imagine” in Zulu and SeSotho. The vision of Cabanga is to help youth and parents create new possibilities for their lives and to fortify the family as a system. Cabanga works collaboratively with other stakeholders to equip people to take agency toward a better life. It strives to facilitate access for youth from impoverished communities to career assessments, learning support, and opportunities to enhance their holistic development and well-being. It also endeavors to create spaces where parents can access parenting-skills training and support. Laetitia believes that it is imperative for people to become the active managers of their own personal and professional development. She and Charne hope to grow Cabanga and help create youth development centers across South Africa that will provide youth and parents with the tools to become agents of holistic, positive social change as democratic citizens and contributors toward the global economy.

Wandisile Mdepa, Edu Mthombo, South Africa

Wandisile Mdepa has been employed since 2010 by the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in Cape Town, South Africa, in the Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor: Student Development and Support Unit as a student governance manager. His role is to help professionalize student governance in the university, developing policies for the Students Representative Council (SRC) and its affiliates and ensuring alignment with university strategic goals. Wandisile works directly with the SRC, clubs, and societies, and he conducts research on good practices and ways of working collaboratively with other student-governance practitioners from sister universities in the region and nationally. He provides training to various student organizations, to individual students in the university, and to nonprofit organizations such as Ikamva Youth and the Social Justice Coalition as well as to different faith-based organizations. He has conducted the Empowerment Workshop at UWC since 2014 after completing the Empowerment Institute certification program in New York. He strongly believes in ethical, principled, and selfless leadership along with lifelong learning as part of academic development. Wandisile is the cofounder of the nonprofit organization Edu Mthombo: Your Legacy, where he will anchor the IMAGINE South Africa work.

Edu Mthombo: Your LegacyEdu Mthombo: Your Legacy is a nonprofit South African company founded as a result of conscious awareness that all of us have a role to play in making the world a better place. The Zulu name of the organization describes a fountain that never runs dry of water: so, like the human spirit, it always rebounds. The mission of Edu Mthombo is to provide training in disciplines including education, health, empowerment, social change, and environmental issues. In addition the nonprofit company will engage in community development initiatives providing learning tools and personal development workshops for disenfranchised students.

Named as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s ’25 New Faces of Independent Film,’ and a fellow of IFP’s Emerging Visions symposium, Danielle Lurie is a New York City based filmmaker and photographer. She has been shooting films and photographs since graduating from Stanford University in 2000 with a BA in Philosophy.

Danielle’s debut short film, In the Morning, premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, and has won six film festivals to date including ‘Best Narrative Short’ at the Oscar qualifying Nashville Film Festival. In November 2005, In The Morning was invited to screen before the U.S. Congress at the Congressional Human Rights Caucus on Honor Killings, and later screened before UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women). Right after In The Morning, Danielle made the short impromptu documentary 81-Year-Old Sweethearts, about an 81-year-old man she randomly met on a plane who was flying across the country to re-meet his high school sweetheart after 62 years – which was has reached over half a million views online (YouTube and Vimeo combined).

Danielle has filmed a documentary in Uganda where she lived in an IDP (Internally Displaced People) Camp as well as a feature length documentary following Sheryl Crow’s Global Warming tour through the deep south, produced by Laurie David (An Inconvenient Truth). On the narrative side, Danielle has written screenplay adaptations of Jamaica Kincaid’s novel, Lucy, to star Zoe Saldana (Avatar, Star Trek) as well as an excerpt of Nicholas Kristof’s best selling book, Half the Sky, directed by Marisa Tomei and Lisa Leone.

In 2011, Danielle wrote and directed the short film, Tiny Miny Magic, which is a whimsical tale of a love story gone postal, starring Jennifer Lafleur and Ross Partridge. Danielle's most recent short film, Intuition, was filmed in the summer of 2013 in Barcelona, Spain and is about to begin it's festival run.

Danielle is currently in development on the feature-length version of In the Morning, titled Fortunate Sons, that will co-star Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves, Punch Drunk Love) and is also adapting another Nicholas Kristof NY Times article into a full-length screenplay about a female vigilante in India that she will direct titled Usha. She has recently become attached to direct Slugger, a feature film written by Jimmy Miller about a teenage girl who dreams of becoming the first female to play Major League Baseball. Danielle is currently writing a comedy script about birth.

Danielle is a member of Film Fatales, a NYC based collective of female filmmakers: filmfatalesnyc.com/

Dina Shafaqouj is the IMAGINE consultant for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. As an entrepreneurship and empowerment expert, and a civil society technical assistance specialist, Dina Shafaqouj is a freelance consultant and trainer delivering specialized missions on institutional development, community mobilization, business start-up, and business management. Her experience also includes developing and adapting training tools and modules for community-based productivity projects that address social and economic needs. She has proven skills in programs management, team building, facilitation, group mobilization, leadership, and mentoring.

Dina holds a BS in chemical engineering and possesses certificates from several international organizations: she is a Global Learning Partners trainer of trainers and Certified Dialogue Education Teacher, a master trainer in the International Labor Organization’s Start and Improve Your Business management training program, a trainer with the Empretec integrated capacity-building program of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, a certified Empowerment Workshop trainer with the Empowerment Institute, and a founding member of Arab Facilitators Network.

Dina has more than twenty years’ experience working within the nongovernmental organization (NGO) sector. At the Jordan River Foundation (JRF), one of the leading NGOs in Jordan and the MENA region, she has helped Jordanian handicrafts reach export markets, built Jordanian developmental success models, and developed the training and consultancy division of JRF as a resource for NGOs in the Arab region.

Throughout all her work Dina has built a network of Arab NGOs and development specialists in the MENA region. Now Dina works as an NGO technical assistant specialist in one of the U.S. Agency for International Development projects that supports strengthening civil society in Jordan.

Gail Straub, cofounder and executive director of the Empowerment Institute, is one of the world’s leading authorities on women’s empowerment. She codirects the Empowerment Institute’s School for Transformative Social Change, which empowers change agents from around the world to design and implement cutting-edge social innovations. As part of this focus, she cofounded IMAGINE: A Global Initiative for the Empowerment of Women to help women heal from violence, build strong lives, and contribute to their community. IMAGINE initiatives are under way throughout Africa, Afghanistan, India, and the Middle East. Gail has been a consultant to many organizations furthering women’s empowerment including the Chinese Women’s Federation, Women for Women International, World Pulse, and the Omega Women’s Leadership Center.

Gail is the author of five books, including, with her husband, David Gershon, the best-selling Empowerment: The Art of Creating Your Life As You Want It; the critically acclaimed The Rhythm of Compassion: Caring for Self, Connecting with Society; and the award-winning feminist memoir Returning to My Mother’s House: Taking Back the Wisdom of the Feminine. She is also a contributor to the anthology Enlightened Power: How Women Are Transforming the Practice of Leadership.

Taking her empowerment work global early in her career, Gail served as the international director for the First Earth Run, a historic planetwide initiative cosponsored by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and ABC Television in 1986, during the height of the cold war. As a torch of peace was passed around the world, 25 million people in sixty-two countries participated and the relay garnered recognition from forty-five heads of state. The event raised millions of dollars for UNICEF that was distributed to the neediest children in the world.

Gail has served in the Peace Corps in West Africa and on many boards including Omega Institute and the Russian American Initiative.

Shatha Habahbeh is currently a Queen Rania Family and Child Center supervisor at the Jordan River Foundation (JRF) child safety program. Queen Rania Family and Child Center is pioneering an innovative approach to an Arab model of a community center, which provides integrated services and support to children and families. Shatha has worked with JRF since 2004 as a teacher, trainer, and now supervisor. Her experience as a supervisor has helped her gain important skills in empathizing with others and putting herself in their situation. During her years as a trainer, Shatha has learned about the importance of creating a safe space where mothers can come together to share challenges as well as successes. In conducting the Empowerment Workshop at JRF, Shatha plans to work with disempowered women who have lost a sense of security and control of their own lives. Since the vast majority of mothers she works with need this program, Shatha feels that her responsibility is to spread the knowledge of this methodology and to create a culture of empowerment among the women.

Jordan River Foundation

The Jordan River Foundation (JRF) is a Jordanian nonprofit, nongovernmental organization established in 1995 and chaired by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah. The foundation’s vision is a Jordan where solutions are homegrown, where the opportunity to prosper is for all, and where the well-being of Jordan’s children shapes its future. The foundation’s mission is to engage Jordanians to realize their full economic potential and overcome social challenges, especially child abuse. JRF has three main programs: the Jordan River Child Safety Program, the Jordan River Community Empowerment Program, and the Training and Consultancy Services. Since inception, the foundation has initiated numerous socioeconomic projects for women, which aim to provide employment opportunities that in turn enhance their livelihoods. These projects also work toward enhancing women’s knowledge and skills in the production of traditional handicrafts and in entrepreneurial skills. Such initiatives have succeeded in benefiting thousands of individuals—directly and indirectly—and today they continue to generate income for vulnerable communities and families across the kingdom.

With the growth of the foundation, and the evolvement of development in the country, JRF has widened its approach to include sustainable community investments. By integrating and serving community development needs, the foundation is now recognized nationally, regionally, and internationally as an agent for positive change. Locally, the foundation has achieved acclaim and standing as a leading Jordanian institution that contributes to the social and economic well-being of citizens, and its activities have become models for emulation. www.jordanriver.jo

Adeebeh Hejazi is a senior trainer at the Jordan River Foundation (JRF) Training and Consultancy Center. With over fifteen years of experience at the foundation, Adeebeh is an integral part of the JRF team. She has conducted a diverse range of trainings and awareness sessions within the field of child safety and protection, as well as in youth and women’s empowerment. Adeebeh’s passion, vision, and hope for a more positive world have driven her continued success as a catalyst for change in her trainee’s lives. Parents, teachers, youth, children, industry professionals, and women throughout Jordan have benefited from Adeebeh’s capacity-building methodology and her skill at delivering the Empowerment Workshop. Her continued positive outlook, along with her deep belief that all people have the power to improve their lives, is fundamental to her effectiveness in the training room and beyond.

Jordan River Foundation The Jordan River Foundation (JRF) is a Jordanian nonprofit, nongovernmental organization established in 1995 and chaired by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah. The foundation’s vision is a Jordan where solutions are homegrown, where the opportunity to prosper is for all, and where the well-being of Jordan’s children shapes its future. The foundation’s mission is to engage Jordanians to realize their full economic potential and overcome social challenges, especially child abuse. JRF has three main programs: the Jordan River Child Safety Program, the Jordan River Community Empowerment Program, and the Training and Consultancy Services. Since inception, the foundation has initiated numerous socioeconomic projects for women, which aim to provide employment opportunities that in turn enhance their livelihoods. These projects also work toward enhancing women’s knowledge and skills in the production of traditional handicrafts and in entrepreneurial skills. Such initiatives have succeeded in benefiting thousands of individuals—directly and indirectly—and today they continue to generate income for vulnerable communities and families across the kingdom.

With the growth of the foundation, and the evolvement of development in the country, JRF has widened its approach to include sustainable community investments. By integrating and serving community development needs, the foundation is now recognized nationally, regionally, and internationally as an agent for positive change. Locally, the foundation has achieved acclaim and standing as a leading Jordanian institution that contributes to the social and economic well-being of citizens, and its activities have become models for emulation. www.jordanriver.jo

Theresa McGahran is the IMAGINE manager of community learning, where she works closely with IMAGINE-partner nongovernmental organizations throughout the world to support them in achieving mastery as practitioners of empowerment. She has worked in training and development for the past twenty years and her expertise includes coaching, mentoring, and training. A practical and intuitive facilitator, Theresa builds lasting relationships and has demonstrated personal management skills in operations, finance, personnel selection, and performance evaluation. She is certified by the Empowerment Institute and holds a master of science degree in organizational change management from the New School for Management and Urban Studies in New York. A blue-water sailor, Theresa lives in Croton-on-Hudson, New York.

Vito Izzo has been traveling the world since his first trip abroad as a foreign exchange student in college and he hasn't stopped! To date, he has been on every continent (except Antartica—which is in the making) and over 475 cities in ninety countries around the world. Vito attended the University of Madrid, Spain, and the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, as an undergraduate majoring in foreign languages. He speaks fluent Spanish as well as conversational Italian and French, in addition to his native English. Vito began his career as a high school foreign-language teacher. He escorted groups of students to Spain and Mexico on school breaks and thus began his travel career. After obtaining his master's degree in administration, he left teaching to become an administrative officer on the ships of the Royal Caribbean cruise line, sailing from the United States to the Caribbean and South America. He was soon promoted to the position of chief purser on the company's flagship. He was subsequently offered a position with Pan American World Airways to teach flight attendants at Pan Am's International Flight Academy, which led to a position as purser on Pan Am 747s flying around the world. In 2000, with the demise of Pan Am, Vito started his own travel company, Global Travel & Tours, with a staff of hand-selected colleagues to offer his clients the best in personalized travel-consulting services. He is now a member of US1Travel, and in this role it is his proud pleasure to be part of the IMAGINE program coordinating the travel of participants from all over the world to the Empowerment Institute.

Steve Busch, webmaster

Steve has been the graphic designer and webmaster for Empowerment Institute and Global Action Plan for nearly 20 years. He has designed numerous publications including books, brochures, newsletters and ephemera, as well as design/development/management of both the EI and IMAGINE web sites.

He is a strong supporter of social and environmental causes, and has designed and manages web sites for land preservation organizations such as Woodstock Land Conservancy, Wallkill Valley Land Trust, and North Salem Open Land Foundation. As a political and social justice activist, he spearheaded grass roots campaigns, and twice ran for city council in Hoboken, NJ.

Steve is also an artist, and has exhibited in the Hudson Valley, Hoboken, and New York City.

Steve Busch, webmaster

Steve has been the graphic designer and webmaster for Empowerment Institute and Global Action Plan for nearly 20 years. He has designed numerous publications including books, brochures, newsletters and ephemera, as well as design/development/management of both the EI and IMAGINE web sites.

He is a strong supporter of social and environmental causes, and has designed and manages web sites for land preservation organizations such as Woodstock Land Conservancy, Wallkill Valley Land Trust, and North Salem Open Land Foundation. As a political and social justice activist, he spearheaded grass roots campaigns, and twice ran for city council in Hoboken, NJ.

Steve is also an artist, and has exhibited in the Hudson Valley, Hoboken, and New York City.

Asma Snoussi

Asma Snoussi is a PHD student in Management at the University Tunis El Manar (UTM), Tunisia. She conducts research in the field of social entrepreneurship. Asma has been a member of the Tunisian Center for Social Entrepreneurship (TCSE), where she was responsible for the training department and actively promoted the concept of social entrepreneurship in Tunisia. Her research revolves around social entrepreneurship, the entrepreneurial process, and innovation. Currently Asma is a project coordinator at the Jasmine Foundation for Research and Communication (JFRC).

Jasmine FoundationThink. Engage. Empower

The Jasmine Foundation (JF) is an "action research" CSO that has established itself as an innovative NGO working to study social challenges in Tunisia and come up with creative solutions. Jasmine Foundation has extensive experience in programs that engage vulnerable or marginalized youth.

JF specializes in civic education for youth in marginalized areas, using non-formal education and youth-led trainings to engage youth and women in civic life and public decision-making, particularly at the local level, by giving them the tools, skills and confidence they need.

JF also has developed extensive experience in successfully translating scientifically rigorous research into policy relevant outcomes and programming. JF has significant experience in organizing and mediating public dialogue and forums, research methodologies and fieldwork, writing policy briefs, and helping local actors conduct outreach.

To date JF has successfully managed many large projects thanks to a dedicated and skilled team of researchers, project coordinators and assistants as well as an extensive and solid network of volunteers. Since its establishment in 2013, JF has grown a prolific network of allies and collaborators in the private and public sectors alongside civil society.

Jacqueline Seeley’s well-rounded international experience in food security and education encompasses knowledge from proposal writing, donor relations, public relations, and program operations to training and assessing national educators and teaching foreign languages. From her time abroad Jacqueline has experience working within many stages of development assistance: she has worked with government officials and the diplomatic circle while working for the United Nations World Food Programme; she developed the strategic direction of the High Atlas Foundation in Morocco while serving as its interim executive director; and she worked directly with end beneficiaries during her time with the U.S. Peace Corps. Jacqueline embraces hard work, integrity, dedication, innovation, and creativity in both work and life. She is fluent in French and learning Arabic: a multicultural environment has been part of her life passion since she was an adolescent.

High Atlas Foundation

The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) aims to make sustainable prosperity a reality. Founded in 2000, HAF is a Moroccan and U.S. not-for-profit organization and since 2011 it has held special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The local development of predominantly rural impoverished Moroccan communities is based on a participatory approach that advances the realization of national and global initiatives to promote sustainable human development. This aim is made a reality through projects encompassing promotion of organic agriculture from nursery to market, improvement of school environments, attention to health and sanitation, and environmental resource management. Since 2003, HAF and its partners have planted more than 2 million trees as part of a campaign to plant one billion trees in Morocco. HAF and community tree-planting efforts benefit 5,000 households (about 45,000 people) throughout eleven Moroccan provinces. http://www.highatlasfoundation.org

Fatima Zahra Laaribi

Fatima Zahra Laaribi was born in Marrakech, Morocco. She graduated from Cadi Ayyad University, where she received a bachelor’s degree and a diploma in business management. Prior to working at the social-development nonprofit High Atlas Foundation (HAF), Fatima Zahra worked at a law firm as well as working as an accounting assistant at the company Conseille Gest PLUS. Since 2012 she has worked as the office manager at HAF, where she helps coordinate all of HAF's various activities from the central office in Marrakech as well as managing HAF communications with local, national, and international partners.

High Atlas Foundation

The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) aims to make sustainable prosperity a reality. Founded in 2000, HAF is a Moroccan and U.S. not-for-profit organization and since 2011 it has held special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The local development of predominantly rural impoverished Moroccan communities is based on a participatory approach that advances the realization of national and global initiatives to promote sustainable human development. This aim is made a reality through projects encompassing promotion of organic agriculture from nursery to market, improvement of school environments, attention to health and sanitation, and environmental resource management. Since 2003, HAF and its partners have planted more than 2 million trees as part of a campaign to plant one billion trees in Morocco. HAF and community tree-planting efforts benefit 5,000 households (about 45,000 people) throughout eleven Moroccan provinces. http://www.highatlasfoundation.org/

Mona Hassouna

Mona Hassouna Salha, an activist from Lebanon holding both Lebanese and Syrian social identities, believes and advocates for human rights in all her work. Since 2003 Mona has worked in the community and youth development sectors in Lebanon and Syria, as well as in many other countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. Her work has focused on two levels, project development and empowerment, and in these areas she has been a leader in project design, planning, implementation, and evaluation. She has delivered a wide variety of training to people of all ages and backgrounds, on topics including leadership, peace building, conflict transformation, proposal writing, and project management. Mona has been the master regional facilitator with the British Council on two global leadership training programs: Active Citizens and Leadership in Community Development. Mona studied audiovisual journalism at Lebanese University and she holds a master’s degree in NGO management from La Sagesse University, Lebanon.

Steps

Steps is a noncommercial company registered under Lebanon’s 677 Civil Record that works to create transformational strategic moments in the process of community empowerment and change. Steps engages with any movement that is working toward social justice, including issues of human rights, gender, nonviolence, and freedoms. The organization works on providing a quality model of change through a specific set of services while seeking to create an environment of critical thinking, appreciation of difference, and creativity. Its services include participatory and interactive facilitation for meetings, workshops, seminars, and conferences; participatory focused research; measuring impact and developing quality assurance; developing training materials and curriculum; consultation support; and building and incubating civil-society organizations. http://www.stepslb.org/

Wesam Zatar

Wesam Za’tar works at the Jordan River Foundation as a specialist senior trainer in the field of individual and community awareness and prevention. She has more than eighteen years of experience in the field of social work. Trained in the areas of individual and institutional empowerment, Wesam has expertise with the underprivileged, women and children, and the marginalized and vulnerable. She has also designed programs for school dropouts, worked as head of training, and designed programs for staff development. Because of the increasing numbers of Iraqi and Syrian refugees in Jordan, Wesam now provides specialized consulting-oriented programming to marginalized and disadvantaged women and children within the Iraqi and Syrian refugee population.

Jordan River Foundation

The Jordan River Foundation (JRF) is a Jordanian nonprofit, nongovernmental organization established in 1995 and chaired by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah. The foundation’s vision is a Jordan where solutions are homegrown, where the opportunity to prosper is for all, and where the well-being of Jordan’s children shapes its future. The foundation’s mission is to engage Jordanians to realize their full economic potential and overcome social challenges, especially child abuse. JRF has three main programs: the Jordan River Child Safety Program, the Jordan River Community Empowerment Program, and the Training and Consultancy Services. Since inception, the foundation has initiated numerous socioeconomic projects for women, which aim to provide employment opportunities that in turn enhance their livelihoods. These projects also work toward enhancing women’s knowledge and skills in the production of traditional handicrafts and in entrepreneurial skills. Such initiatives have succeeded in benefiting thousands of individuals—directly and indirectly—and today they continue to generate income for vulnerable communities and families across the kingdom.

With the growth of the foundation, and the evolvement of development in the country, JRF has widened its approach to include sustainable community investments. By integrating and serving community development needs, the foundation is now recognized nationally, regionally, and internationally as an agent for positive change. Locally, the foundation has achieved acclaim and standing as a leading Jordanian institution that contributes to the social and economic well-being of citizens, and its activities have become models for emulation. www.jordanriver.jo

Reyad Mohammed Abu Sharaf

Reyad Abu Sharaf works as a senior psychosocial counselor at Jordan River Foundation for Family and Children. He has a PhD in counseling psychology and mental health. Reyad provides counseling and psychotherapy for children and their families, and he conducts psychosocial interventions and evaluation processes for children with special needs. He has worked as a trainer in many modalities: human communication skills, behavioral modification strategies, self-assertiveness skills, and the application of intelligence tests such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children and the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, as well as various psychometric tests. For several years, Reyad worked as an expert in the field of psychological diagnosis with special needs, and he assessed children with autism, mental retardation, and learning difficulties. He has used behavior modification treatments to help individuals with special needs.

Reyad has a deep interest in psychological and social issues in Jordan. He wants to play a role in serving his people as well as people in other Arab countries throughout the world regardless of their language, color, or religion.

Jordan River Foundation

The Jordan River Foundation (JRF) is a Jordanian nonprofit, nongovernmental organization established in 1995 and chaired by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah. The foundation’s vision is a Jordan where solutions are homegrown, where the opportunity to prosper is for all, and where the well-being of Jordan’s children shapes its future. The foundation’s mission is to engage Jordanians to realize their full economic potential and overcome social challenges, especially child abuse. JRF has three main programs: the Jordan River Child Safety Program, the Jordan River Community Empowerment Program, and the Training and Consultancy Services. Since inception, the foundation has initiated numerous socioeconomic projects for women, which aim to provide employment opportunities that in turn enhance their livelihoods. These projects also work toward enhancing women’s knowledge and skills in the production of traditional handicrafts and in entrepreneurial skills. Such initiatives have succeeded in benefiting thousands of individuals—directly and indirectly—and today they continue to generate income for vulnerable communities and families across the kingdom.

With the growth of the foundation, and the evolvement of development in the country, JRF has widened its approach to include sustainable community investments. By integrating and serving community development needs, the foundation is now recognized nationally, regionally, and internationally as an agent for positive change. Locally, the foundation has achieved acclaim and standing as a leading Jordanian institution that contributes to the social and economic well-being of citizens, and its activities have become models for emulation. www.jordanriver.jo

Namrata Kanuga

Since 2012 Namrata Kanuga has worked as the creative project manager at the NGO Kolkata Sanved based in Kolkata, India. Kolkata Sanved aims to harness the power of dance and dance movement therapy to heal, empower, and transform individuals into active citizens and change-makers. In her capacity as creative project manager, Namrata has performed a wide variety of roles at Kolkata Sanved including designing classes, arranging internships, and coordinating contact between faculty and students. As the head of the Sustainability and Resource Center at Kolkata Sanved, Namrata oversees the design of events and workshops, directs the advocacy and campaign performances, coordinates the online academy and library, and is involved with grant writing and budget lineup. She is also involved with the audiovisual documentation of all Kolkata Sanved programs.

Kolkata Sanved

Kolkata Sanved is an NGO based in Kolkata, India, that aims to harness the power of dance and dance movement therapy (DMT) to heal, empower, and transform individuals into active citizens and change-makers. Kolkata Sanved’s Sampoornata methodology, based on DMT for Change, recognizes the creative potential inherent in every human. Expression, creativity, and dance utilized as therapy within the Kolkata Sanved curriculum addresses the unique mental, emotional, and physical needs of survivors of trafficking and violence. Kolkata Sanved believes that all individuals, both from marginalized and from mainstream populations, should live with the dignity and self-respect that can be achieved through DMT. This approach was developed to break the exploitative, patriarchal, and oppressive boundaries that have restricted women and girls in India. Kolkata Sanved aims to build the eco system for DMT for Change across Asia and create leaders and change-makers in the field, especially from underprivileged communities. http://www.kolkatasanved.org/

Mandakini Desale

Mandakini Chudaman Desale holds a master’s degree in social work. She works with the NGO Saheli Karyakarta Sangh, in Pune, India, as program manager, after starting with Saheli as an intern nine years ago. Working with Saheli for the past nine years is the most courageous thing Mandakini has done in her life. Given Mandakini’s family background, she found it very challenging to choose a vocation supporting women in sex work. But she saw the work as a great opportunity for her professional and personal development. Each day at the Saheli office, Mandakini encounters new experiences, new exposure to life, and new challenges.

Saheli HIV/AIDS Karyakarta Sangh

Since its foundation in 1998, the Saheli Sangh’s vision has been to empower female sex workers in Pune’s red-light district through a collectivization effort. Saheli’s main aim is to enable greater levels of self-protection among sex workers through promoting a sense of togetherness, supporting collective action, and, most important, creating a sense of identity. Saheli encompasses 100 non-brothel-based sex workers and approximately 3,000 women working in the brothels; the collective’s general membership consists of more than 1,000 members. Saheli is the only sex workers’ collective in Pune, and its activities include prevention and education around sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS; self-help groups for women living with HIV/AIDS; networking with government hospitals, clinics, and other NGOs; a community kitchen project; a drop-in center for sex workers; and twenty-four-hour child care for children of sex workers. http://www.sahelisangh.org/

Ernest Niragire

Ernest Niragire is the coordinator of the Rwandan NGO Duhozanye. In this capacity Ernest has spent more than ten years working to empower widows and orphans from the Rwandan genocide to access social and economic welfare, as well as to become more resilient. Duhozanye closely monitors and defends the rights of widows and orphans. The organization promotes economic development, provides shelter to its members, and helps them grapple with loneliness and trauma. As a professional development manager, Ernest is able to work in many different settings, including rural economic development, women's empowerment, institutional development, and organizational restructuring. Ernest’s professional background includes knowledge in the areas of agribusiness, microfinance, and community saving; enterprise development and innovations; and program-management skills.

Duhozanye Asscoiation

The tragic events of the Rwandan genocide in April through July of 1994 left various forms of scars on the genocide survivors. Indeed, the genocide took thousands of lives and broke up the foundations of social relations. Many survivors of the genocide lost beloved family members as well as all their belongings. To various degrees, they have experienced trauma, exclusion, isolation, fear, poverty, and loss of hope for the future. Some have been injured or tortured, while others have been victims of rape and sexual abuse. In November 1994, addressing these complex issues, widow survivors of genocide created the Duhozanye association, which means, “Let’s console one another.” The mission of Duhozanye is to ensure the socioeconomic empowerment of widows and orphans of the genocide in order to integrate them into everyday life, so that they can achieve self-reliance and participate in the development of Rwanda. http://duhozanye.com/

Makanjuola Obisakin

Makanjuola Obisakin was born in Nigeria and received his BA in English education from the University of Ife in 1986. Currently he is working toward his doctorate in education. Makanjuola has worked as a teacher and as a secondary-school principal. He is an Empowerment Workshop facilitator with his wife, Busayo Obisakin, at their NGO, Women Inspiration Development Center in Nigeria. Makanjuola was the first IMAGINE trainer to bring the Empowerment Workshop to men, leading the way for many other IMAGINE countries to begin their work with men who support women’s empowerment.

Women’s Inspiration Center

Busayo Obisakin founded the Women Inspiration Development Center (WIDC) in 2008. Along with a group of women colleagues called Vigilantes Against Violence, Busayo set out to curb the violence against women and girls. The mission of the Women Inspiration Development Center is to improve the physical, economic, and social status of Nigerian women and girls, empowering them to lead fulfilling lives free of violence. WIDC provides a safe haven along with an ongoing network that empowers women and girls to discover the real purpose of their lives and to create new possibilities without fear or intimidation. The Empowerment Workshop is a central part of WIDC’S curriculum. When the mission of WIDC is fulfilled, Nigeria will be a safe place for women and girls. https://www.betterplace.org/en/organisations/womeninspirationnigeria

Olanike Olubunmi Olugboji

Olanike Olugboji is a resource conservationist and women’s empowerment advocate in Nigeria. She holds degrees in urban and regional planning. Inspired by her concern for nature and deep sense of equity, she founded the Environmental Management and Protection Network in Nigeria in 2004. While in the field, she became profoundly aware of the lack of attention to women’s roles, rights, and responsibilities in environmental sustainability. Olanike’s passion is engaging grassroots women in natural resource stewarding and peace making, through her organization the Women Initiative for Sustainable Environment (WISE), which she founded in 2009. Her online journal Women, Environment, and Society Think-Tank on the World Pulse website is dedicated to raising awareness and spurring action about environmental issues touching women’s lives. Her article about the need for safer affordable cooking options as an alternative to the open-fire stoves used by disadvantaged women in Nigeria appeared in Time magazine in April 2016. Among her recognitions, Olanike was named as one of the top Voices of Our Future correspondents at World Pulse, and she was also a recipient of the Junior Chambers International 2014 Ten Outstanding Young Professionals in Nigeria Award.

Women Initiative for Sustainable Environment (WISE)

Women Initiative for Sustainable Environment (WISE) is a nonprofit organization with a mission of empowering grassroots women and youth with the information, knowledge, skills, and human agency that will help them become natural-resource stewards and peace makers. The organization’s work focuses on the promotion of environmental sustainability, women’s empowerment, gender equality, poverty reduction, and peace building in Nigeria and beyond. WISE programs deliver environmental awareness on climate change, conservation, food and water security, peace and conflict resolution, micro entrepreneurship, citizen journalism, clean cooking solutions, and human agency. WISE also networks and lobbies individuals, governmental and intergovernmental bodies, NGOs, and corporate organizations to develop environmentally sustainable initiatives that socially and economically empower women. WISE has initiated and implemented many projects that support women and girls in becoming active leaders in the environmental sector, where they have long been invisible and unheard. To date, WISE has directly impacted more than 7,000 women across rural and urban communities in Nigeria. WISE envisions a safe and just world where green living is achievable for everyone. http://www.wisenigeria.org

Millicent Joash

Millicent Adhiambo Joash was raised in a humble family in the small village of Tagache in Muhuru Bay on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya. Millicent attended Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Nairobi, where she graduated with a bachelor of science degree in botany and zoology. She further pursued a postgraduate diploma in education at Kenyatta University. She is a wife and the mother of four beautiful children. Millicent has worked as a teacher, trainer, credit officer, and now as senior program officer at ESVAK Community Development Initiatives, as well as an assistant trainer at the Kenyan NGO Sanja Women’s Group.

ESVAK Community Development

ESVAK Community Development Initiatives was founded in August 2001 and is registered as a national NGO. For the past twelve years ESVAK has worked with poor communities in twenty-three constituencies in fifteen counties. Currently ESVAK partners with 260 self-help groups and ten community-based organizations while accessing a direct target population of over 10,000 through more than fifty community projects in the relevant counties. ESVAK’s current programs include Urban Slum Development; Entrepreneurship and Women & Youth Empowerment; Education for Rural and Marginalized Communities; Civic Education; Research on Clean Cook-Stoves with Johns Hopkins University; and IMAGINE Empowerment Training launched in February 2012. ESVAK has a long track record for working with communities at the grassroots level and as a result has a wealth of community capital. ESVAK has successfully managed resources for thirteen international partners and it has infrastructure in target areas. NGOs from ten European countries and the United States have partnered with ESVAK (among other projects) to build schools, children’s homes, ablution blocks, shelters for the homeless, early childhood development centers, and youth vocational training centers; offer microcredit revolving fund scheme; and carry out research. http://esvakcdi.org

Nafisatu Yussif

Nafisatu Yussif is committed to promoting the rights and well being of women and men, and in particular the poor, marginalized, and disadvantaged. Since 2011 Nafisatu has been working in international development. Currently she serves as the advocacy and networking officer for the highly regarded West African NGO ABANTU for Development in Accra, Ghana, where she promotes women’s rights and gender equality. Nafisatu also serves as coordinator of the Gender Action on Climate Change for Equality and Sustainability, a civil-society organization network working for gender justice in climate change initiatives in Ghana. She holds a master of science degree in social policy and development from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a bachelor’s degree in political science and information studies from the University of Ghana, and a postgraduate certificate in community development from Trent University in Peterborough, Canada.

Abantu for Development Ghana

ABANTU for Development is a women’s rights organization working to promote women’s agency in development processes in Ghana and in Africa as a whole. ABANTU is an NGO established in 1991 by a group of African women living in England. It has extended its reach by establishing autonomous regional offices in Eastern and Western Africa. The Ghana office, ABANTU for Development, Regional Office for Western Africa, is currently in special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and focuses on gender and governance, gender and climate change, and gender and peace building, which are key areas of development as contained in the Twelve Critical Areas of Concern in the Beijing Platform for Action.

Brigitte Dzogbenuku

Brigitte Dzogbenuku is the founder and executive director of Mentoring Women Ghana (MWG), which runs programs that inspire and empower young women and girls into making a positive difference in their communities. She won the Fortune/Goldman Sachs Women’s Leadership Award in 2008. Prior to her work at MWG she was general manager of Aviation Social Centre, a fitness and recreational center in Accra, where she introduced various innovative fitness programs and events into this niche industry in Ghana. In 2011, she founded Recreational Facilities Management, a company that later became Helm Management Services Limited, which runs recreational facilities; in this role she managed the Barclays Bank Club House for four years, until September 2015. She has also established Ve Flavour Industries, an edible-palm-oil production and packaging for-profit company that works with women in the Volta region of Ghana, contributing to their socioeconomic empowerment. Brigitte is driven by the Ghanaian woman’s strong will to succeed no matter the odds and has a dream of seeing women in key leadership roles in Ghana.

Mentoring Women Ghana

Mentoring Women Ghana (MWG) is an NGO established in Ghana in 2009 with the aim of supporting the personal growth of young women through mentoring by more mature and accomplished women. Through sports programs, professional interaction, and personal development programs, mentors inspire young women and help them achieve leadership qualities, career direction, and personal and social development through which they can positively impact their immediate communities and beyond. MWG’s vision is a community of empowered women who are contributing to the development of their communities and positively impacting lives of others. MWG has been the flag-bearer of the international Global Mentoring Walk for the past eight years and had mentored more than 320 young women as of 2016. http://www.mwghana.org/en/

Azizullah Royesh

Azizullah Royesh is board member and civic education teacher at Marefat High School (MHS), the educational branch of the Kabul-based nonprofit Marefat Civil Capacity Building Organization. As a top-ten awardee of the Global Teacher Prize 2015, Aziz joined the Empowerment Institute certification program in January 2016. Aziz has studied privately in the field of Farsi literature, the history of Islam, the holy Quran, civic education, and civil rights. He has authored and coauthored a series of textbooks on humanism, human rights, democracy, and interpretation of the Quran that are taught at Marefat High School. Currently he teaches interpretation of the Quran with a humanistic approach at MHS. Aziz Royesh was one of the Yale World Fellows in the class of 2010 and a fellow of Reagan-Fascell at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in 2011–2012. He wrote his autobiography as his research paper at NED and published its Farsi version in 2013. The book, titled Let Me Breathe, portrays three decades of change and development in Afghanistan between 1979 and 2012. The acclaimed book The Last Thousand (2016) by Jeffrey Stern tells Aziz’s story and the story of Marefat High School.

Marefat High School and Marefat Civic Capacity Building Organization

Founded in 1994 in the refugee camps of Pakistan, Marefat High School (MHS) is the educational branch of Marefat Civil Capacity Building Organization (MCCBO). Both MHS and MCCBO are tax-exempt nonprofit entities registered in the ministries of education, finance, and economics. The main focus of MCCBO is education, with a democratic and human-rights orientation. The school started its activities in Kabul just after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. As of 2016, Marefat High School was home for 3,600 students from kindergarten to twelfth grade. Around 43 percent of the students were female. One of the most successful parts of the Marefat program is adult education, in which adults, mainly women between the ages of fifteen and forty-eight, attend an accelerated learning program. Most of the students have passed their course of studies from first to ninth grade in less than four years. Music, art, Radio Marefat, professional training in audiovideo, electricity, radio, journalism, and a monthly magazine are the extracurricular activities in the school. All programs and activities of MCCO are led and supervised by a board of trustees consisting of influential community members including university professors, businessmen, and civil society activists. www.marefatschool.org

Mohammed Faisal Akrami

Mohammad Faisal Akrami works with Zardozi Markets for Afghan Artisans as a monitoring and evaluation manager. He received an MBA from the London-based University of Roehampton Online. He has more than ten years of professional experience with local and international organizations, mainly in the fields of research, project management, management information systems, networks, communication, databases, e-commerce, programming, and project development. Over that time, Mohammed has been extensively involved in policy and procedure development, strategic planning, and decision making as well as direct management of personnel and resources in managerial positions. His life vision is to work as a leader for Afghanistan and the Afghan people, leading and empowering men and women to stand up on their own feet, to be in charge of their lives, and to prosper so that they can educate their children to become responsible citizens and advocates of peace.

Zardozi: Markets for Afghan Artisans

Zardozi is an Afghan NGO that, under some of the most challenging circumstances for women in the world, has developed innovative ways to enable extremely poor women to become entrepreneurs. Zardozi’s vision is an Afghanistan free from poverty where gender equality exists at all levels of society and government. Zardozi’s hard-earned lessons in developing solutions for poor Afghan women include not only capacity building but also practical, ongoing business support provided through grassroots, community-based business centers. Zardozi has already worked with more than 8,000 disenfranchised women and aims to reach a target of 17,000 women in the next three years. http://www.afghanartisans.com/

Yogesh Vaishnav

Yogesh Vaishnav is a development-sector professional with a graduate degree in science and with postgraduate studies in journalism and mass communication. He has more than twenty years of experience in the development sector as a gender activist at the grassroots level. Yogesh is one of the founding members of Vikalp Sansthan, a nonprofit organization established in 2003 in Rajasthan, India. The organization works toward ending gender-based violence and creating social equality for all; it focuses on training youth to become agents of change. After serving as secretary of Vikalp Sansthan for more than ten years, Yogesh now handles multiple key portfolios in the organization, including program management. He has been involved in activities including participatory training, module and resource material development, media and communication, documentation, advocacy, lobbying, networking, project management, monitoring and evaluation, and design and production of radio programs. He has been India’s national committee member of the “We Can End All Violence against Women” campaign launched by Oxfam in England.

Yogesh’s key areas of interest are gender, child marriage, masculinity, sexuality, and engaging men and boys in ending all violence against women. He lives in Rajasthan with his family.

Vikalp Sansthan

Founded in 2003, Vikalp Sansthan is a nonprofit organization committed to ending gender-based violence against women. The organization aims to create a violence-free society based on equality, justice, and peace. Working in nine districts of Rajasthan State in India, Vikalp Sansthan engages with youth to empower them as change-makers to achieve social justice. Vikalp Sansthan’s organizational strategy focuses not only on empowering women and girls but also on sensitizing and engaging men and boys in the process of creating gender-just society. Vikalp Sansthan runs various campaigns to end gender-based violence, domestic violence against women, and child marriage. These unique campaigns use participatory approaches in engaging the community—including youth, community leaders, religious leaders, police, and government officials—to help with problem identification and implementation of solutions. In its mission to end child marriages not only in Rajasthan but also in India generally, Vikalp Sansthan works with many national and international partners. For more details, visit http://vikalpindia.org/

Charne Lee Permall

Currently running her own consulting business, Chasse People Consulting (Pty) Ltd, specializing in human-capital development, Charne Permall holds a master’s degree and is a registered psychologist in Western Cape, South Africa. With more than eight years of experience in the corporate sector, Charne is passionate about developing people and making a difference in the way she leads her clients. Charne received her certification as an Empowerment Workshop facilitator in New York in 2016 and will continue her training in the IMAGINE master trainer certification program. Her passion for people has been matched with the impact of the Empowerment Workshops in developing the youth of South Africa. Charne is honored to contribute to IMAGINE South Africa by working closely with her mother, Laetitia Permall, and their NGO, Cabanga Foundation.

Cabanga, South Africa

The nonprofit Cabanga Foundation, based in South Africa’s Western Cape, is codirected by Charne Permall and her mother, Laetitia Permall. The word cabanga means to “conceive” or “imagine” in Zulu and SeSotho. The vision of Cabanga is to help youth and parents create new possibilities for their lives and to fortify the family as a system. Cabanga Foundation works collaboratively with other stakeholders to equip people to develop agency and create better lives. Cabanga strives to facilitate access for youth from impoverished communities to career assessments, learning support, and opportunities to enhance their holistic development. It also endeavors to create spaces where parents can access parenting-skills training and support. Cabanga was founded in the belief that it is imperative for people to become the active managers of their own personal and professional development. The vision of Cabanga Foundation is to create youth development centers across South Africa that provide youth and parents with the tools to become agents of holistic, positive social change as democratic citizens and as contributors toward the global economy.

Mona El Gazzar

Mona El Gazzar was born and raised in Egypt, where she was educated in international schools and then went to Cairo University, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in commerce. After receiving a master’s degree in business administration from the American University in Cairo, she worked as an assistant professor at the university. Mona then worked at an international company that sent her to England to acquire experience at the regional office, where she was promoted as the budgeting and financial analysis manager. Her varied experiences gave her the background and leadership skills to establish her own private construction firm, the House of Building and Construction (HBC). As the leader and founder of HBC, Mona was responsible for the building of hospitals, railway stations, and youth centers in Egypt.

Mona’s newly discovered passion, helping people to improve their lives, was the driving force that led her to join the leading Egyptian NGO, the Association for Women’s Total Advancement and Development, where she facilitates the Empowerment Workshops. Mona is a person who leaves a positive mark on all that she does and all the people she works with.

Save the Children

Save the Children has been working in Egypt since 1982. Theyplay a leading role in addressing the needs and rights of the most deprivedboys and girls, their families and communities. Their programs are increasingaccess to quality education services, improving maternal, neonatal, infant and school children health and nutrition; building stronger services for children, at risk of violence and abuse, promoting child participation and protection at the personal, family and community level, and promoting safe economic, education and participation options for adolescents and youth. They are also responding to a protracted refugee crisis in Egypt, providing protections and promoting equity for vulnerable refugee and migrant communities. Save the Children programs reached around 3 million boys and girls, and their families in 2016 alone. Their programs promote equitable outcomes for the most deprived boys and girls. They work with them and their families from diverse communities across 19 Governorates in Egypt with programs targeting poor and marginalized children, children at risk, children with disabilities and children on the move, including refugees and migrants. https://egypt.savethechildren.net/about-us

Usha Choudhary

Usha Choudhary is a social activist who has been working for the past seventeen years to end gender-based violence against women and girls. Having founded the Rajasthan-based NGO Vikalp Sansthan with other like-minded social activists, Usha currently serves as both the secretary and the program director of the organization. With postgraduate work in the Hindi language and professional education in rural development, Usha’s education and passion led her to focus on women’s issues, mainly child marriages, girls’ education, and women’s rights. Usha’s seventeen years of dedicated work for women’s empowerment has been recognized at both the national and international levels and her many awards include the Celebrating Being a Woman Award (2012); the Bhaskar Woman of the Year Award (2012); a L'Oreal Paris Femina Women Award (2013); and the Jija Bai Award of the Celebrating Womanhood program (sponsored by Delhi University) in 2014. Currently living in Rajasthan, Usha continues her dedicated work to improve the status of women in Indian society and is contributing to creating a society that is equal and just for both men and women.

Vikalp Sansthan

Founded in 2003, Vikalp Sansthan is a nonprofit organization committed to ending gender-based violence against women. The organization aims to create a violence-free society based on equality, justice, and peace. Working in nine districts of Rajasthan State in India, Vikalp Sansthan engages with youth to empower them as change-makers to achieve social justice. Vikalp Sansthan’s organizational strategy focuses not only on empowering women and girls but also on sensitizing and engaging men and boys in the process of creating gender-just society. Vikalp Sansthan runs various campaigns to end gender-based violence, domestic violence against women, and child marriage. These unique campaigns use participatory approaches in engaging the community—including youth, community leaders, religious leaders, police, and government officials—to help with problem identification and implementation of solutions. In its mission to end child marriages not only in Rajasthan but also in India generally, Vikalp Sansthan works with many national and international partners. For more details, visit http://vikalpindia.org/